Cracker Jack

"It's not too late to change your mind," I said, shoving my hands deep into my pockets. The skyline was lit up with city lights, though beyond them was nothing but black.

"Are you going to change yours?" Jack challenged.

I shook my head.

"Then I won't either. Let's go."

I sighed heavily, trying to ignore the guilt that was bubbling up inside of my stomach like a bad case of acid reflux. "Fine," I grumbled, spinning on my heel and trudging down the sidewalk.

Jack followed close behind me. "Which one are you going to take?" He scanned the nearby vehicles with unmasked interest.

"I'm not dumb enough to take one right from our neighborhood, Jack."

He rolled his eyes. "It's not like cars don't go missing around here all the time."

"I don't want to be the first suspect that pops to everyone's mind tonight. Hell, if I'm smart about it, nobody will even notice that I'm missing. You, on the other hand..." I left my sentence unfinished, knowing that he already fully understood my intent. Half of the police force would be out looking for him first thing in the morning. We wouldn't even be in the city by then.

"I'm not going home, Hayley. Just pick a car already. I'm fucking cold!"

"This way," I directed, ducking through a back alley and continuing my search.

"What about that one?" He asked, pointing at a silver SUV.

I shrugged. "I'm leaning more toward that one," I gestured toward a wood-paneled station wagon that had to be at least a couple of decades old.

Jack couldn't conceal his look of distaste. "Why?"

"It's low-profile. Nobody's going to suspect that an old beater like that is hot."

He waited patiently while I dug through my bag and retrieved what I was looking for. I had long-since picked through the few items that Kevin had left behind in his rush to leave my house, and Mom had thrown the rest away when she had found them. She was completely unaware that I'd managed to snag a few helpful items before she'd discovered that any of it had existed.

I worked silently, fitting the silver lockpick into the slot in the driver's side door. A vehicle this old wouldn't have any of the safety features offered these days. I heard a quiet click, and grinned at Jack triumphantly as I opened the door.

He waited until I reached across the seat and unlocked the passenger door, then slid inside next to me. "Alright, so your breaking and entering skills are pretty good, but how do you plan to start this thing? Do you know how to hotwire?"

I gave him a dark smile. "You act like this is my first time."

Jack seemed to be visibly tense as I fumbled with the wires under the dashboard. After a few seconds, the engine roared to life. Apparently, the car was in need of a new muffler. Badly.

"Fuck," I grumbled, throwing the car into gear and backing out of the driveway as fast as I could manage. "I didn't expect it to be so loud."

Jack was uninterested in my outburst. He began fiddling with the dials in the dashboard. "Does this thing have any heat?"

I ignored him as I focused on navigating my way through the city streets. There was hardly any traffic this late at night, but just to keep on the safe side I stayed away from any metropolitan areas as I headed out of Detroit. Jack successfully blasted the heat, and my fingers were soon thawed.

"So where are we going now?" Jack asked. He hadn't really asked for any details until now.

"There's a map in my bag. I highlighted the quickest way there. You can check it out if you want."

He unzipped the bag and dug around for a bit. "Whoa. Where'd you get the cash?"

"It's my life savings. Odd jobs here and there kind of add up if you have nothing to buy."

"Got anything else worth checking out in your little bag of tricks?"

"Not really. Just a few things that I thought we might need. Michigan winters aren't exactly the ideal time for road trips, you know?"

He leaned over the backrest on his seat and set my bag gently on the seat behind us. "I wonder what else they've got in here," he murmured.

I laughed as he crawled into the backseat and began digging through the contents of the car. I had read the map so many times over the past few hours that I knew every turn by heart, so it wasn't difficult to find my way out of Detroit. Occasionally, Jack would pop up by my side with some item that he'd discovered, but mostly I just saw him through the rearview mirror.

"I kind of feel bad for taking this kid's teddy bear away," Jack smirked, setting the stuffed toy on the dashboard. "He's going to be our mascot for this trip. I've decided to name him George."

"George? Isn't that a monkey's name?"

"Fine, I'll name him Fred. Better?"

I surveyed the bear for a moment. "Fred works."

He climbed back into the front seat and looked over at me. "Let me know if you get tired, okay? I'll take a turn driving."

I shook my head. "I couldn't sleep if I tried. But thanks."

Jack played with the radio until he settled on a rock station. The music was the only sound, apart from the overloud engine, for a long while. Suddenly, a thought seemed to occur to him.

"How long can this tank of gas last us?"

"i brought the money for a reason, Jack."

"Oh, right. Hayley, can I ask you something?" There was a note of hesitation in his voice. After all this time, shouldn't he have been comfortable enough to ask me anything?

"Of course."

"Why is this so important to you? You're only going to get to see him for a little while; you can't expect to get him out of jail. Is it really worth all of this?"

I paused, feeling unsure about my motives for the first time. "He's my brother. He's been trying to talk to me for God only knows how long, and I need to know that I tried, at the very least. Wouldn't you do the same thing?"

"I've never had someone close enough to call family before. So, no, I don't think I would."

"Forget about the people who tried to be your family before. If you'd known Bobby your whole life, and he disappeared without a trace, wouldn't you ever wonder? And if you got the chance to find him again, wouldn't you feel compelled to do it?"

He paused, thinking hard. "Alright, I guess I get it. I'd want to know what happened. I think your little excuse for grand theft auto is justified."

"And you're a Mercer, so I'd have to assume that breaking a few laws wouldn't be a total turn-off to you."

He laughed loudly. "You're right. It's kind of a rush."

I knew that this probably wasn't going to be the last time that I felt the rush he was referring to. That is, unless I got caught and wound up in prison. Then I would have some difficulty doing anything illegal, no matter how small and insignificant.

After a few minutes, Jack decided to ask another question. "So what are you going to say when you get there?"

I hadn't actually thought that far ahead yet. A part of me had believed that something in my plan would have fallen through by now, and I'd be curled up in my bed. But nothing had gone awry - things couldn't have gone any smoother, actually - and now I was faced with a lot of time to figure out what I would do when I reached my destination.

"I'll think of something, I'm sure. Mostly, I just want to know why he's behind bars. And why he never came home." I stared straight through the windshield, hoping that Jack couldn't see how bothered I was by the whole situation.

"You really miss him, huh?"

I nodded. "He was the only one who got me. Until you showed up, I guess. But still, I wish he was around."

"I hope that everything works out for you. I hope you get all your questions answered."

"Yeah, so do I."